Women's basketball: CU Buffs pound Arizona

Colorado rolls to 79-36 victory

Arielle Roberson of Colorado, drives on Erica Barnes of Arizona during the first half of the January 20th, 2013 game in Boulder.
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CLIFF GRASSMICK
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Colorado sophomore Lexy Kresl did a nice job of summing up the Buffaloes' performance with the first answer of Sunday's press conference.

"It was definitely good overall, all-around, by every single player on offense and defense," she said. "I don't think there were hardly any mistakes made on our part. I think we did awesome."

Yes, the No. 21 Buffs were awesome in a 79-36 domination of Arizona at Coors Events Center.

Arielle Roberson led the Buffs with 12 points, but four CU players scored in double figures and nine scored between six and 12 points during a game that was never really in doubt during the final 30 minutes.

The 43-point margin of victory is the largest for the Buffs (15-2, 4-2 Pac-12) in a conference game since they defeated Iowa State by 45 points on Feb. 19, 1995. CU also extended its win streak to four games, its longest in conference play since a six-game win streak from Jan. 13-Feb. 4, 2004.

Against Arizona (11-6, 3-3), CU led by 46 at one point late in the second half and never trailed.

"You definitely don't expect (a rout) in the Pac-12," said Kresl, who had 11 points and seven rebounds. "Every team is really good, and Arizona is a good team. We just came out ready to play. That's really all there is to it, we were just ready."

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In addition to Roberson and Kresl, Chucky Jeffery (11 points) and Jamee Swan (10) also scored in double figures. Jeffery also had six assists, five rebounds and four steals, while Swan snagged eight rebounds.

CU dominated in just about every way statistically. The Buffs hit 50 percent of their shots (32 of 64), while Arizona made just 25 percent (13 of 52). The Buffs out-rebounded the Wildcats 51-26 and had a whopping 21-3 advantage in assists.

The Buffs outscored the Wildcats in the paint (44-8), off turnovers (19-6), on the fast break (12-2) and in second-chance points (15-3).

"They played tougher and we weren't physical," Arizona head coach Niya Butts said. "I was kind of surprised that we showed up today like this on the floor. We didn't do anything that we game-planned for. We didn't battle."

On the flip side, CU coach Linda Lappe couldn't find much wrong with how her team played.

"We made very few mental or physical errors in that game and that was really fun to see," Lappe said. "It's pretty rare that you have both of those things happen on the same night. Tonight, everything was clicking and our players rose to the challenge of putting two games together back-to-back."

CU pulled away from Arizona State on Friday and then backed it up with Sunday's rout. It's the first time since joining the Pac-12 last year that the Buffs have won both games in a home weekend.

Arizona got within 15-11 with a bucket by Davellyn Whyte, 6 minutes, 12 seconds into the game Sunday. At that point, Whyte, who is one of the Pac-12's top scorers at 16.7 points per game, had nine points.

During the final 13:02 of the first half, though, CU out-scored the Wildcats 28-4. Arizona missed 13 consecutive shots, and 20 of 21, during one stretch of the half.

Initially, Lappe had Jeffery guarding Whyte and then switched to Jasmine Sborov taking those duties. Once Lappe turned to Brittany Wilson to be the stopper, Whyte went quiet. Whyte scored just two points the rest of the game, on a bucket in the second half when CU already led by 30.

"Brittany did a really nice job of trying not to let her catch and when she did catch, really pressuring her and staying down on her face," Lappe said. "Davellyn Whyte is a very, very talented player. She has some great offensive skills and I thought Brittany stepped up to the challenge. She wanted to guard her from the start and I should have just let her guard her."

It wasn't just the defense on Whyte that mattered. Whyte, Alli Gloyd, Erica Barnes and Cheshi Poston came in averaging 43.8 points per game. That group combined for just 17 points Sunday.

"Dialing in on defense and completing our assignments and following the game plan," Roberson said when asked how the Buffs turned the game into a rout.

Offensively, the Buffs were as good as they've been all season. They posted a season-high 21 assists and rarely wasted possessions on offense.

"That was one thing we wanted to get better at," Lappe said. "We felt like we left a lot of points out there for the past few games. Tonight, we left very few points that we didn't make. You've got to like that."

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